Participatory Action Research as/in Adult Education: Offering Three Methods Anchored in Vivencia, Praxis, and Conscientization

Core Concepts

PAR is grounded in the core ontological and epistemological concepts of vivencia, praxis, and conscientization (Fals-Borda & Rahman, 1991). Vivencia goes beyond observation or documentation to sharing in the lived reality of community members, “a full experience of an event with its all possibilities, lived through direct participation” (Glassman & Erdem, 2014, p. 212). Praxis stems from this embodied experience, practical action rooted in reflection on “the conditions one faces in order to change them” (Freire, 1970, p. 33). It is flexible and responsive to local conditions with the goal of “liberation and [the] path to freedom” (Glassman & Erdem, 2014, p. 212). Freire (1970) defines research as conscientization, the “process in which men, not as recipients, but as knowing subjects achieve a deepening awareness both of the socio-cultural reality which shapes their lives and of their capacity to transform reality” (p. 27). Vio Grossi (1981, 1982) calls this disindoctrination – rejecting the systems and status quo imposed on oppressed groups.